The Holiday Market Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Holiday Market - Assignment Example Geographic segmentation divides the market in terms of cities, countries, regions or locality. This may also include the size of the area, population and climatic conditions. Psychographic variable takes into account people’s lifestyles and attitudes. Socio-economic basis helps the marketers to target selected products to different segments thus made. In addition to the above bases for segmentation, because of changes in consumer demands, several other bases for segmentation have been found. These include behavioral and attitudinal segmentation. Behavioral segmentation is undertaken based on how the customers know or respond to the use of the product. The holiday sector is seasonal and hence based on the occasion, segmentation can be undertaken. Customer behavior also pertains to usage and loyalty and these are also used as bases for segmentation on this sector (Tutor2u, n.d.). Marketers can engage in attitudinal segmentation but Diaz-Martin et al., find that people with diffe rent attitudes may also end up buying the same brand or having the same preferences. The attitude determines the preference for the activity and some may choose hill trekking while others prefer scuba diving. All the above bases for segmentation as discussed above do not apply to all areas within the holiday market. In the air sector segmentation based on expected sales is redundant. Latent class segmentation is undertaken which is based on consumer perception of brand, price promotion, sales personnel and product line (Bond & Morris, 2003). Customer expectations are not homogenous and airlines also use customer expectation as an important segmentation variable. Expectations influence the perceived service quality which helps to gain competitive... The Holiday Market Segmentation comes naturally to human beings. Segmentation helps focus on the specific market and service its needs accordingly. The market has to be defined in terms of the end users of the products or services. Sales and marketing is not about getting any customer but to select a homogenous group of customers. This helps devise the right marketing mix strategy as market segmentation is a proactive process involving several analytical techniques (Goller, Hogg and Kalafatis, 2002). This paper evaluates the different bases that marketers use to select their target market. It also examines the segment that is likely to increase or decrease in the next decade. Based on this analysis, the paper recommends how holiday marketers can monitor and devise their marketing strategy. What bases for segmentation might be appropriate in the holiday business? The holiday market is highly competitive and fragmented and hence the segmentation is based on different factors. In fact segmentation in the holiday market could differ for different products. For instance segmentation in transportation could differ from segmentation strategy adopted by the hotels. Segmentation can be based on factors such as demographic, socio-economic, geographical, or psychographic. On review of the above discussion and research it can be concluded that holiday marketers would have to segment their customers based on demographics even if it is considered an outdated method of segmentation. The older customers’ is a high potential segment which prefers package holidays as they seek convenience, comfort, security and safety.